The California Lutheran University Regals basketball team fell short against the Hope International University Royals 78-60 on Wednesday, Nov. 6 in preparation for their upcoming season.

“Ultimately did not want the turn out to be like this, but I thought we played great in the first half. We were fearless in the first half and I think we did get a little tired in the second half,” Head Coach Kelli DiMuro said.

The Regals got off to a hot start with a 20-13 lead after the first quarter. Sophomore forward Cameron Mallory scored two three-pointers. In the first quarter, Cal Lutheran had a wide lead of nine points after sophomore guard Mackenzy Iwahashi scored a two-point shot.

After building a solid lead in the first quarter, the Regals saw that lead shrink in the second. The Regals managed to draw contact to get the opportunity to take free throws, but struggled in finishing. After two quarters, Cal Lutheran was in front, 28-25.

The momentum switched in favor of the Royals in the third quarter. They outscored the Regals 29-12 and shot  57.1% from the field. The Royals also shot 3-7 from the three-point range in the third quarter, while the Regals did not manage to make a three-point shot during that quarter.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Regals were down by 14 and needed to play a near perfect quarter to have a chance to get back in the game. The Regals shot 37.5% in the fourth quarter, but shot 75% from the free-throw line. Hope International stretched the lead to as much as 24 points and had no desire to look back.

Mallory ended the game with a team-leading 15 points. Sophomore guard Haley Tyrell led the team with 9 rebounds, and Iwahashi led the Regals with 5 assists. The Regals overall shot 33.9% from the field, 19.2% from three-point range and 57.7% from the free-throw line.

“The biggest thing for us was our intensity on both offense and defense. We wanted to have a lot of energy from our bench and just being loud on and off the court,” Mallory said.

This was DiMuro’s first game coaching at her alma mater and she was excited to start the season.

“I felt like we were moving the ball a lot better in the first quarter and in the second half our shots were just not falling. Then we hung our heads, and they went on a run and defensively we need to do a better job,” DiMuro said.

Natalie Ruhl is playing in her last season as a Regals guard.

“We were very aggressive in the first half and getting into them with our press. We definitely have a lot to build on and we only have up to go from here,” Ruhl said.

DiMuro did see lots of positives from the game.

“I thought our press break worked well and us pushing the ball for a while was good, but then we stopped pushing. We have been working on our press break for sure, but I think it did tire us out and I think it is a strategy that they used and in the fourth quarter we didn’t have enough gas to hit the gas pedal and keep going,” DiMuro said.

The Regals look to get their first win of the season on Friday, Nov. 15 against the University of Puget Sound at home at 6 p.m.